Another big name leaves PlayStation Japan, re-organisation confirmed

It was only recently we reported that another big name from PlayStation Japan had left the company, and he was the latest in a long line. During the last few months Keiichiro Toyama (Silent Hill, Siren), Junya Okura (Siren, Gravity Rush), Kazunobu Sato (Puppeteer, The Last Guardian) and Teruyuki Toriyama (Bloodborne, Demon's Souls remake) has also left.

Now yet another big name has announced that he is leaving, and this time it is Ryo Sogabe, Video Manager on Sony Japan Studio. He reveals his departure on Twitter:

"I have a information. I will leave from SIE JAPAN Studio at the end of Feb. Rather than working, I've been playing with PlayStation and videos for the past 14 years. I will continue to play new challenges in the new company to bridge between game and video. Thanks."

This makes you wonder what is actually happening with Japan Studio who once gave the world games like Ape Escape, Loco Roco, Patapon, Gravity Rush and The Last Guardian. According to a report over at VGC, a "vast majority" of the Japan Studio employees has been laid of. Now Sony has cleared tings up and confirms that Japan Studio is getting a re-organisation and basically will be consumed into Team Asobi:

"In an effort to further strengthen business operations, SIE can confirm Playstation Studios Japan Studio will be re-organized into a new organization on April 1. Japan Studio will be re-centered to Team Asobi, the creative team behind Astro's Playroom, allowing the team to focus on a single vision and build on the popularity of Astro's Playroom.

In addition, the roles of external production, software localization, and IP management of Japan Studio titles will be concentrated within the global functions of Playstation Studios."

We'll see what this means for Japanese PlayStation games internally developed by Sony in the future. There has been a huge lot of big name developers already and they still seem to be leaving in a steady pace, seemingly not too happy with the re-organisation.

Thanks GamesIndustry